The term is also used to denote clerici vagantes, i.e. clergy without title or benefice, picking up a living anyhow. Certain persons in England during the reign of King Henry I of England were called Acephali because they had no lands by virtue of which they could acknowledge a superior lord.

The name is also given to certain legendary races described by ancient naturalists and
geographers as having no heads, their mouths and eyes being in their breasts, generally identified with Pliny'sBlemmyae.